New ramapithecines and Pliopithecus from the Lower Pliocene of Rudabánya in north-eastern Hungary

Abstract

THE increasing interest of specialists in problems of human evolution has involved not only the final phases, which are well documented but not satisfactorily settled, but also the critical examination of earlier phases. For the latter, however, researches rely mainly on the Indian Ramapithecus¹ and the East African Kenyapithecus² maxillary fragments, while almost entirely neglecting the corresponding European materials. The reason for this may be that the European finds were scattered specimens, or insufficiently described and therefore very difficult to evaluate. In addition, they are described under too many, probably superfluous, names.